One salient point from this article - calculate the time cost for the green technology as well. You can plow a field with a tractor or horses. The horses will take longer and require a whole lot more time in daily “maintenance”.
As an engineering achievement, it’s very impressive in many ways. However, as a home for a couple who were over 70 when they moved in, it’s just plain nuts.
‘[Instead,]During the coldest months, they’d supplement the system with propane water and air heaters.
“If we did that, and had the same kind of heavy insulation and tight construction we do now,” Mr. Brattstrom said, “our house would be easy to run and cost next to nothing.” ‘
LOL!
Just what I do.
So they went and built a very expensive home. But its OK. Its energy efficient.
So in 30 years, they will break even and begin to see a return on the expenses.
Ooops. I see they are in the 70’s.
Never mind.
We added a solar assisted cooling/heating unit and a solar hot water heater (back up uses heating elements but they've been turned off since the install in Aug) and within the next week or two expect to finish the roof mounted 5kW PV system. Some people go nuts, especially after listening to AlBore. I had a friend who watched his "movie" and decided to sell his small PU truck to buy a prius (I guess since he stopped talking to me shortly after that). I sent him a series of e-mails disputing the movie and then asked him how his selling his truck was going to save the planet? If you don't drive it someone else will and it'll still kill the planet if that is your belief. Sorry to have lost a friend but I guess it wasn't such a deep friendship. ;-)
I am puzzled why the roof was not designed to have a steep pitch so that it would more readily shed snow. With solar power running things, am surprised that some safer system for snow removal was not put in place other than a wooden (slippery) walkway far off the ground. If I was 20 years old I would not want to go up there to clear snow.
But he really got going after reading Al Gore’s 1992 book, “The Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.”
Don't do stuff because an idiot with no science or engineering background tells you to.
“I was an idiot and built a house that was way too complicated and labor-intensive,”
Yep.
The guy has longer hair then his wife.
Mostly air tight construction, above code levels of insulation, and paying attention to passive solar heating and cooling will more than half your utility bills with very little, if any, added construction costs to new buildings. The Greeks knew about passive solar thousands of years ago, the sun is still doing today what it did back then.
There are plans for passive thermo-siphon solar heaters that cost no more than a quality double hung window. They produce heat (up to 165 degrees) in the winter, and are shaded in summer. All air, no water to pump or leak.
This guy built a McMansion, and while his elect bill is low, maintenance and TAXES are out of sight for a retirement home.
Interesting story, warrants a nighttime bump...
I have been waiting 30-40 years for articles like this one. The title is perfect!
Brief background. I was an engineer for 46 years and active in the community. I served on many boards and commissions which accomplished real improvements over those 45 years.
The least productive was a 15-year stint it what was grandiosely named the "Energy Task Force" in the early 70s, dedicated to the promise of abundant, cheap, no-maintenance energy. There ain't no such thing. Never was and never will be.
Consider that the initial costs have decreased by several orders of magnitude, and it is still too expensive for the average family to contemplate, 45 years later!
This topic always brings to mind two examples of "public displays of imbecility: "
Solar panels on the White House, and the ICC (Ick) Building at Georgetown University.